President’s Update, 3 of 12: feat. freshers, Succot and more!

A month into the new term, and the exciting projects we have been planning to deliver are now just around the corner!

In the last blog, you heard about our rebrand, the launch of our new website, our representation of students to government and in EUJS, as well as the relaunch of our Women’s Network and trips to Israel. This month of freshers has been all about supporting local J-Socs as they go into the new year, with a few new and exciting opportunities from the voice of Jewish students along the way.

So here’s some highlights from UJS this last month…

We visited 34 freshers’ fairs

UJS President Josh Holt, second from right, with SOAS J-Soc at their Freshers' Fair

Throughout the last month the UJS team were on campus non-stop, visiting freshers’ fairs and helping J-Soc committees to encourage new sign ups and share with freshers the incredible opportunities available on campus.

We signed up over 1400 students to our new website

This means 1400 more students can go to Friday night dinners, buy tickets to exciting upcoming national events like Bridges not Boycotts Conference, vote in the UJS Presidential election (nominations open 16 October) and keep up to date with everything going at their J-Soc.

We launched our Home and Abroad Network

The Home and Abroad Network launch event was a huge success, with 35 students coming together to share a drink and find out about how they can get involved in Jewish life on campus. If you aren’t in the Network’s Facebook group, you can join here.

We launched our Succot homelessness project

Leeds J-Soc's peer-led lunch and learn, where they discussed the contemporary issue of homelessness and the influence we can have as students through positive social change

Succot is an excellent opportunity to talk about homelessness, through its themes of vulnerability and the idea of tzedaka. From our homelessness project, we started a conversation on what we can do as students on campus through positive social change, with almost 10 J-Socs taking this on so far, including Leeds's lunch and learn (pictured above) whilst Cambridge J-Soc hosted two people who have been homeless to share their stories.

We finalised our Committee Handbook

This booklet allows J-Soc committees to have all the information they need to run J-Soc in one place, and to get the most support from UJS possible, with this meaning more events for you.

Now Freshers has been and gone, we can’t wait to start coming to all the incredible events on your campuses. See you there!

About UJS

We are the voice of over 8,500 Jewish students, spanning 60 Jewish Societies (J-Socs) on campuses across the UK and Ireland. We are traditional, progressive, cultural and spiritual; we come from the left, centre and right and can be found across religious and political spectrums.

Together we create and deliver powerful campaigns; fighting prejudice, advancing inclusion, and inspiring education and action on the issues that matter to us.